Natural remedies and psychological tactics

Natural remedies I've tried for severe anxiety:
L-Theanine- negligible effect, but I could function
Chamomile nighttime tea- weak effect, I combined it with L-Theanine
Hyland's Calms Forte (herbal sleep aid)- Effective, but may not be ideal for daytime use for the employed. (I use it on work days with outstanding results, but I have serious issues.) Persistent use has caused me to see halos and starbursts around lights, but it doesn't bother me.
5-HTP- Best result
Caution: 5-HTP cannot be combined with antidepressants. Will cause illness.
It will affect your cardiovascular system. If you do experiment with it, please monitor or have your physician monitor your blood pressure and cardiovascular system.

Psychological tactics:
Stay in the moment. Do I have anything to worry about right now? Worrying about an upcoming event or situation? I trained myself to shove it out of my mind and get up that day and just face it then without worrying. I'm so pathetic and have had such awful anxiety that I'd sit and worry if I was going to be okay to go to the grocery store! I only work part time, so I'd tell myself "Don't worry about it! A better day will come along to go to the store." Sitting at home, don't HAVE to go anywhere that day, I'd fight tooth and nail to not worry, because it would make things even WORSE!

I tried calming music and aromatherapy, didn't help much!

Thank you!!
Great tactics and natural helps

Funny I just posted a very similar thread with what I do
I realize mine is for Borderline and yours is for anxiety....but I also get anxiety with my borderline when I'm depressed.
http://www.psychforums.com/borderline-personality/topic127534.html

I will try the 5htp you said... I'm not taking antidepressants but what does it do to your blood pressure? Higher or lower?

Taurine - an amino acid.

5-HTP is a precursor to the chemical serotonin in your brain and system. Serotonin is a vasoconstrictor of blood vessels-could potentially elevate blood pressure. Personally, my cardiovascular system has never functioned better. I'm looking forward to someday being able to run the mile for the first time in my life! Even in childhood, trying to run, it felt like my chest was going to explode and i felt like I couldn't breathe. Now I can ride a bike at 20 mph, sing, air guitar and air drum all at the same time. Not bad for a smoker!

-- Tue Oct 29, 2013 1:53 pm --

Aha! I was looking for taurine myself at a local specialty store. Wound up trying things I did find at the store- leery of buying supplements online.

Have you used it, and what was your experience?

I could not find conclusive information on what action taurine takes in the brain. The experts do not seem to know. I hypothesized that it is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, but saw only conflicting claims and statements. Do you know anything on that one?

It has been cited to calm the sympathetic nervous system as well. IDK!

Thank you Damaged.
So 5 HTP might be ok for me since my blood pressure tend to be quite low anyway
Good luck with your findings and on your first run. Sounds exiting!

Something I've been trying is the emotion freedom technique (EFT). What you do is tap different meridian points with two fingers while saying a kind of mantra like "I know I have anxiety but I deep and totally accept myself.

Studies can't quite figure out why this works but a lot of people are starting to see positive effects. You do this daily and measure how your anxiety is feeling before the exercise and after. The points are above the eyebrow, next to your eye, under the eye, under the nose, chin, collarbone and underarm.